Microbial Linear Plasmids

Download or read book Microbial Linear Plasmids written by Friedhelm Meinhardt and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-07-31 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book that constitutes the first attempt to comprehensively assemble current knowledge of different types of such elements, highlight recent developments in the field, and challenge the distinction between viruses and linear plasmids. Linear plasmids of microbes represent a heterogenous group of extrachromosomal genetic elements initially assumed to be rare and peculiar. However, we now know that they are fairly frequently occurring plasmids in bacterial and eukaryotic species. Viral strategies to avoid shortening of the linear molecules during replication imply a common ancestry.